BEYOND THE MACHINE

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PROFILE of Jean Tinguely, the Swiss motion sculptor & invenor of the "meta-matic" machines. The new movement called "nouveaux realistes" includes Yves Klein, who made his reputation with "blue paintings"-canvases covered exclusively with several layers of a pigment he has named International Klein Blue" -& has since progressed to painting with "living brushes," or nude models who daubthemselves with I.K.B. and then press their bodies against blank canvases under Klein's direction. In preparation of his exhibition "Le Vide" ("The Void"), at the Galerie Iris Clert, Klein spent two days cleaning & whitewashing the one-room gallery to rid it of the "presences" of other artists who had exhibited there. White & exorcised, it was then presumably filled with the presence of Klein, nothing else. No paintings, no sculptures. 3000 people were turned away from the opening, & spent the evening milling about the Rue des Beaux Arts. Klein had managed to have two Republican Guard in their colorful uniforms stationed at the door. His Left Bank friends could not believe the Guards were genuine, & subjected them to such a barrage of indignities that the pair left in a rage after the first hour. The next morning Klein & Iris Clert were informed that they would be brough to trial for insulting the State. The action was dropped, however. A few months later, at the Clert Galerie, Klein & Tinguely gave a joint-show called "Pure Speed And Monochrome Stability. It consisted of Klein's paintings whirling & being "dematerialized" by Tinguely motors. Some friends of both men have said that Tinguely really succeeded in "dematerializing" Klein, who did very little of anything for some time afterward.